ONWASA claims one of its customers is behind on its water bill by nearly $1 million.

ONWASA is suing Scientific Water and Sewer for $944,528.08 it says it’s owed. The Onslow Water and Sewer Authority sells treated water to the smaller water company, which resells the water to its customers.

Those customers live primarily in subdivisions off Gum Branch Road. The utility corporation was established in 1963 and is owned by Carmen Aragona, according to the Corporations Division of the Office of N.C. Secretary of State.

Citing the nature of the ongoing lawsuit, neither side would comment on the record about the matter.

A review of court documents shows that ONWASA claims Scientific owes $95,723.11 from Deerfield, $220,581.98 from Raintree and $628,222.99 from Summersill.

In a counterclaim, Scientific sued ONWASA for $20,000 in damages for suddenly stopping the billing of customers.

ONWASA, which had been in a contract with Scientific since July 2006, stopped providing billing services in July without notice. Until then, ONWASA would send out bills to Scientific customers for a $3 charge to Scientific, according to the counter suit.

The counterclaim was tossed out of court in January by N.C. Superior Court Judge Jack W. Jenkins who ruled that as a component of local government ONWASA has sovereign immunity from such legal action.

ONWASA’s lawsuit was filed late last year by the authority’s attorney S.C. Kitchen.

Scientific was represented by Diane Furr of the Charlotte law firm Poyner & Spruill until being replaced late last month by Caroline Mackie and Andrew Erteschik.

The ONWASA Board of Directors is set to discuss the case in closed session today.

Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or lindell.kay@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.